Trails group plans development of former railroad corridor at center of court cases

BELDING -- A local trails group has purchased a 21.9-mile segment of a former railroad corridor that is in the middle of ongoing legal battles.

The West Michigan Trails & Greenways Coalition, heavily backed by the Meijer Foundation, paid Muskegon-based Mid-Michigan Railroad $1.3 million for the land that runs from Lowell north to Greenville. It is part of a planned 125-mile recreational rail trail that coalition members expect will begin to take shape in the next few years.

“This has been a very rewarding experience in just pulling it all together,” said Vestaburg resident Carolyn Kane, project coordinator for the coalition. “It’s just going to be a wonderful resource forMidwest Michigan.”

A hundred property owners with land near the corridor anticipate devaluation and are suing the federal government for compensation. Their complaints represent one of three active cases involving nearly 50 miles of the 125-mile corridor. The other legs stretch from Ionia to Lowell and from Elwell to Alma.

None of the litigation will stop development of the trail, St. Louis attorney Mark “Thor” Hearne II said. It’s a matter of the landowners “constitutional right” to compensation, he said.

“Trails are a fine thing,” Hearne said. “We all like them. We’re not necessarily knocking the concept.”

Greenville city officials, however, tried to interfere with the trail’s progress. They fought to reserve the railway, unused since 2006, for future commercial interests. The city lost its appeal to the federal Surface Transportation Board in 2008, and the coalition since raised enough money to buy the land.

Main financiers include the Meijer, Frey and Greater Lowell Community foundations. The property is to be owned and maintained by Friends of the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail.

West Michigan Trails in October paid $1 million for a 16-mile chunk of rail trail running from Ionia to Lowell, which also is owned by the friends group.

Development of both pieces still is a ways off, with work expected to begin in the next three years, Kane said.

The next step is to form a trail authority to oversee development along the 125-mile stretch.

“Certainly, there’s an extensive planning process that goes on, and we haven’t even been able to touch that,” Kane said. “We had to go through the acquisition process first.”